Democratic challenger John Kerry won the first televised presidential debate against Republican President George Bush late on Thursday, according to instant polls. A Gallup poll for CNN gave Kerry a 46% to 37% win over the president. It added that 46% of those asked now have a better opinion of Kerry against 21% for Bush.
The CBS network, which asked 200 voters, said 44% gave victory to Kerry against 26% who thought the president had the upper hand. Thirty percent said neither candidate won.
An ABC poll of 531 people gave 45% for Kerry, 36% for Bush and 17% for a draw.
But the survey said Bush still had the support of 51% of voters for the November 2 election against 47% for Kerry.
Kerry accused Bush of committing a ”colossal error in judgement” by invading Iraq.
”The world is better off without Saddam Hussein,” Bush shot back, adding that his rival once said so himself. ”I agree with him,” Bush said in a jab designed to underline his contention that Kerry is prone to changing his positions.
Kerry said he could do a better job than Bush of protecting the nation against another September 11-style attack and pledged to be strong and resolute in fighting terrorism.
”But we also have to be smart… and smart means not diverting our attention from the war on terror and taking it off to Iraq,” Kerry said.
Bush swiftly returned to his theme of Kerry as a man who changes his mind too often to be president.
”He [Kerry] voted to authorise the use of force and now says it’s the wrong war at the wrong time. …. I don’t think you can lead if you say wrong war, wrong time, wrong place. What message does that send to our troops?” said Bush.
Both men used well-rehearsed lines during their face-to-face encounter, but this was the first time each man had to listen to the criticism at close quarters.
The 90-minute debate unfolded scarcely a month before the election, the first in a series of high-stakes encounters between the president and his Democratic challenger. The two men meet on October 8 in St. Louis and again on October 13 in Tempe, Arizona.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Kerry’s running mate, Senator John Edwards, hold their only face-to-face debate of the campaign on Tuesday in Cleveland.
The polls gave Bush a slight advantage, with several key battleground states exceedingly close.
Given the stakes, it was not surprising that the two campaigns negotiated what amounted to a 32-page contract that covered debate details. They ranged from the choice of moderator to the distance between the candidate lecterns.
Even so, a last-minute controversy flared, as Kerry’s aides objected to the placement of timing lights on the lecterns.
Kerry appeared to taunt the commander in chief at one point when he said his father, former President George HW Bush, had stopped troops from advancing on Baghdad after they had liberated Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf war.
Now, he said, the son ordered an invasion of Iraq anyway, without an exit strategy, and under conditions that mean the United States has incurred 90% of the casualties and paid 90% of the cost.
In response, Bush said his opponent had denigrated US allies in the war, voted against an $87-billion measure to aid Afghanistan and Iraq and sent mixed signals.
”What’s his message going to be? Please join us in Iraq for a grand diversion?” Bush said to Kerry’s contention that he could summon broader international support for the war. ”They’re not going to follow someone whose core convictions keep changing because of politics.”
In response to one question, Kerry said the president had misled the country on the war by pledging to plan carefully, give diplomacy every chance to prevail and more. He said Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks, had used the invasion as a recruiting tool for terrorists.
Bush said that was an ”amazing claim,” and said the United States, not bin Laden, should decide America’s strategy in the war on terror.
Again, he said Kerry had changed his mind on the war, but this time, Kerry said he had held one consistent position.
”The only thing consistent about my opponent’s position is he’s been inconsistent,” said Bush. – Guardian Unlimited Â